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Author Topic: Top 100 Club: Sandy  (Read 56493 times)

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #130 on: February 15, 2019, 12:04:33 AM »
...would be interested to know how I came at it again now. It could be like you said, "seeing things through."

Hmm maybe, but I kind of doubt it... it sounds like you connected to this film in a deeper way.

It felt deep at the time, for sure. It's interesting how movies will resonate so strongly, as if they have something to highlight in your life right at that moment and then after the "lesson is learned", the impact fades. I find that those are the movies that fall from my list on revisits. Sometimes the lessons are short-lived and sometimes, they're needed for a very long time. 

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This interaction between Ivy and Lucius kind of reads like something out of Jane Eyre:

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Ivy Walker: When we are married, will you dance with me? I find dancing very agreeable. Why can you not say what is in your head?

Lucius Hunt: Why can you not stop saying what is in yours? Why must you lead, when I want to lead? If I want to dance I will ask you to dance. If I want to speak I will open my mouth and speak. Everyone is forever plaguing me to speak further. Why? What good is it to tell you you are in my every thought from the time I wake? What good can come from my saying that I sometimes cannot think clearly or do my work properly? What gain can rise of my telling you the only time I feel fear as others do is when I think of you in harm? That is why I am on this porch, Ivy Walker. I fear for your safety before all others. And yes, I will dance with you on our wedding night.
                 
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Jane Eyre: Am I a machine with out feelings? Do you think that because I am poor, plain, obscure, and little that I am souless and heartless? I have as much soul as you and full as much heart. And if God had possessed me with beauty and wealth, I could make it as hard for you to leave me as I to leave you... I'm not speaking to you through mortal flesh. It is my spirit that addresses your spirit, as it passes throguh the grave and stood at God's feet equal. As we are.

You're really on to something here! I wonder if Shyamalan was reading some Brontë, while working on his script! :D

Isn't William Hurt wonderful in this? He carried the weight of making this village seem plausible, at least in a movie magic sense. One thing Shyamalan does so well (and he does many) is the actors he chooses. I became a big fan of Gleeson from this film.
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It's a very deep bench. I could've used more of those town hall meetings just to have more time with them all! :)

Yes, this! I think it's one of the reasons I kept coming back, to sit with these actors, living these parts.

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #131 on: February 15, 2019, 12:52:47 AM »
Becoming Jane (2007 Julian Jarrold)

I wonder at times about opening ourselves up to have others comment on our favourite films. Perhaps others do not like it, or worse find it dull or boring or despicable. Do we want to know this. I am left at the end of Becoming Jane thinking of this, for it is a film very much about what others may think of what you do (real or imagined) or say, who you see or are seen with.

I've been sitting with this comment for a while. It intrigues me. :) As for the first part, yes, having people watch and review movies that I have chosen as favorites is always a little bit petrifying. It a vulnerable place to sit in, but as we've been doing this for a handful of rounds, I've gotten less attached and more pragmatic about others' responses as well as about my own choices. It feel more like a microscope of exploration, rather than exchanging briefs in a court. As my perceptions change, my ability to gain from this club increases.

Perseverance is a theme which runs through many of the films in my top 100 and Becoming Jane is a great example. She met with great resistance when it came to her writing and her chance at love. It's difficult to not let others affect our ability to live authentically and to create. Yet, she continued on. I find her pragmatic sacrifices to be inspiring.

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It is a film about what Jane Austen's life may have been like, but is steeped in the styling of her novels (at least my small understanding of her novels). This styling works very well.

Yay! :) I believe they worked very hard to create a bridge between what they knew of her life and what they could glean from her novels.

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A lot of this film is set not long before the time of The Favourite, and while aspects of the worlds are similar, they are worlds apart in many ways. Still the candle lit scene on the stairs brings to mind several scenes in the latter film.

I just saw The Favourite on Monday and those candle lit scenes also made me think about Becoming Jane and Jane Eyre's candle lit scenes! :)) Filming candlelight is tricky business.

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Ah, the longing and unrequited love, it is painful.

Ain't it the truth. :'( I still get choked up when I revisit this film.


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How Green Was My Valley (1941 John Ford)

Poignant, yet with a bit of a rose tinted view of life in coal mining town. Yes there was the wicked tongue wagging and accidents happened at the pit, but nobody appeared to be suffering from any form of lung complaint.

Big surprise was the presence of a very young Roddy McDowell.

I am trying to think why I am rating this higher than Becoming Jane and it comes down to that poignancy, despite itself this film has a power to drive through to your heart (well this one anyway). The focus on life from the boy's perspective, but still dipping in and out of others lifes works. It ties the story together, in a way that the various scene would otherwise be too distant from each other.

I am glad I have finally gotten around to seeing this.

Rating: 79 / 100

What an interesting pairing. Both films span time and are about family love and loss. How Green Was My Valley does come across as somewhat pastoral, but the darkness seeps into the bones and makes me shiver. The singing also sinks in deep. Those rose covered glasses get a bit misty with tears.

I'm glad you saw it too! Thanks, Dave. :)

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #132 on: February 15, 2019, 06:58:34 PM »
Jane Eyre (2011)

I first read Jane Eyre while traveling in Europe. Long train-rides through the English countryside were filled with gazing out the window and reading Charlotte Brontë’s rich writing as she evoked a character whose inner monologue was fascinatingly similar to my own at times. I found in her a kindred spirit with her deep inner loneliness and a strict adherence to holding true to her beliefs even in the most troubling times.

Then you and I are kindred spirits too. :) <3

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Therefore, I’ve always been wary of the idea of an adaptation of this book. Brontë aligns us so close to the character through her inner-musings and deepest thoughts and I knew some of this would inevitably get lost in translation with the film where the inner workings of the mind are often hard to portray on screen.

And it’s fair to say that the 2011 adaptation certainly loses something in translation but it’s not for lack of trying. Mia Wasikowska plays Jane Eyre with the austiure grace depicted in the book and while Michael Fassbender’s Rochester is a bit more prickly than I remember the one in the book being, he gives a captivating performance.

The film tries to work its way into some of the more subjective elements of Jane’s inner mind is by telling the film out of sequence. This allows the film to tinker with moments that will later inform Jane’s actions by drawing certain actions into paralel later actions and moments of decision whereby it begins to make sense why Jane thinks the way she thinks. There’s also a sense in which the entire film plays out as Jane tormented by the events of the book, which plays up the film’s central moral conflict.

And through those means it still captures the quality I found so admirable about the book: the way it captures the moral duty to oneself and God above fulfilling strong desires in moments of passion. Many great romance stories are fits of passion given into with little care about what will happen in the wake of such a storm, but Jane Eyre is acutely interested in the storm such behavior will damage.

This is accentuated throughout the film by the use of locales and weather throughout the film. The English countryside and weather can be fair and lovely during a moment of happiness or barren and harsh when all hope seems lost. It’s a visually affecting film that conveys so much of its emotional weigh through the look and feel of the images.

Any adaptation of Jane Eyre will forever live in the shadows of the book for me, but I think this version tries enough interesting techniques with both the story structure and the filmmaking to make it worth a watch for fans of the story. The core story and central theme still shines through and the film still shows why the story has been adapted so many times. There’s an undeniably potent and timeless story being told here, one worth hearing time and time again.

I don't know what to say. You've said it all. :) Honestly, what you've written about the structure of the film, the actors, the imagery... All of it is why this is my favorite adaptation, and what you wrote about the inner workings of her mind, the loneliness, the moral conflicts, all of which makes it one of my very favorite stories. Let's just look at some pics, because your words are complete.












Bondo

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #133 on: February 15, 2019, 11:22:58 PM »
Ball of Fire

Perhaps my tweets say it best...that's where I do my best writing these days:


Seriously though, on one hand there is the beautiful and charming Barbara Stanwyck and on the other a conservative scold. Being bad at old movies I had mixed up Gary Cooper with Gregory Peck and wouldn't place Stanwyck (though I'm familiar with her name and certainly have seen her in many things). Still, star power works even if you don't know which names to assign to it.

I do appreciate a film where the men, in this case Prof. Potts (Cooper) and his fellow Encyclopedians, are more socially oblivious than I am. I laugh at the scene where O'Shea (Stanwyck) shows up and the various professors shy away but lurk, like some manner of vulnerable but curious animal. Anyway, fun!

smirnoff

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #134 on: February 15, 2019, 11:45:23 PM »
You're really on to something here! I wonder if Shyamalan was reading some Brontë, while working on his script! :D

Hmm. Reading Sam's review of Jane Eyre and your response got me thinking about it some more.

The quasi-love triangle in the two films does have more than a few similarities.

Noah and Bertha are both mentally off. Both stories begin with unexplained hauntings. In The Village dead animals are appearing around the property and even the elders don't know the cause. In Jane Eyre, Jane kind of hears things and senses things which are ghost-like going on around the house. And we later find out the real cause is Naoh and Bertha respectively. Then they both have violent, murderous episodes, caused by jealousy.... they think themselves the proper match for Mary and Rochester, not Lucius and Jane. The general disheveled appearance also is a match.


Mary and Rochester bear similarities too, in that they are both of a higher social class. Mary is the daughter of the leader of the Village, while Lucius is more of a independant misfit. Rochester is rich and has a title, Jane is a servant (of sorts), and an independent misfit.

Then when you factor in the time period which The Village is trying to mimic it could be that Shayamalan was sourcing Jane Eyre for language reasons, and lifted some other elements at the same time.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2019, 11:47:27 PM by smirnoff »

Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #135 on: February 18, 2019, 01:44:27 AM »
 :o :))  Oh my! Most excellent observations!

Let me see if I can continue this train of thought...

Red!

Jane Eyre

"Take her away to the red-room, and lock her in there." ..."Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself; for if you don't repent, something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney and fetch you away."

A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany, hung with curtains of deep red damask, stood out like a tabernacle in the centre; the two large windows, with their blinds always drawn down, were half shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery; the carpet was red; the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth;

The Village

Lucius: Be cautious. You are holding the bad color.

Blindness

Jane Eyre

He cannot now see very distinctly... but he can find his way without being led by the hand.
 
The Village

Ivy: You wonder how I recognize you? Some people - just a handful, mind you - give off the tiniest color. It's faint. Like a haze.



You and I would be good conspiracy theorists, if I do say so myself! :D
« Last Edit: February 19, 2019, 01:05:24 AM by Sandy »

smirnoff

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #136 on: February 18, 2019, 10:03:10 PM »
Red!



NICE tie in! I had TOTALLY forgotten about that moment from Jane Eyre and being locked in the bedroom! That scene is SUPER similar to the scene in The Sixth Sense when Cole gets shoved in that closet under the stairs by some bullies. That is the first thing I thought of when I saw that scene from Jane Eyre, but it's only come back to me now that you've mentioned it. Both scenes are horrible to watch. (Cole is wearing a red sweater in that scene as it happens...)

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Blindness



Oh jeez, I didn't even THINK of that! You're making great connections!

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You and I would be good conspiracy theorists, if I do say so myself! :D

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Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #137 on: February 19, 2019, 01:00:34 AM »
:))

I could watch those gifs all day!



I didn't even think about Cole and his red sweater, in the locked room!!!


jdc

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #138 on: February 19, 2019, 01:30:27 AM »
Likely to miss Sandy's month this round.  Just swamped on a project and traveling, plus it is hard for me to find all the goodness that is in Sandy's list.
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Sandy

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Re: Top 100 Club: Sandy
« Reply #139 on: February 19, 2019, 01:43:21 AM »
Likely to miss Sandy's month this round.  Just swamped on a project and traveling, plus it is hard for me to find all the goodness that is in Sandy's list.

No worries, jdc! Good luck with all you have going on.